Re:Zero Season 1 Director's Cut [SUB] (2016) Review

 Re:Zero - Starting Life In Another World Season 1 Director’s Cut [SUB] (2020) 10/10

What is up everyone? Today, I’ll be going over the critically acclaimed anime series Re:Zero. I have heard nothing but good things about this show, so I have been meaning to watch it for a while now. I’ll say this right here: this show is a masterpiece. This anime made me feel happiness, excitement, dread, edge-of-my-seat adrenaline. Everything! Re:Zero is another isekai anime, but what makes this so different from shows like Reincarnated as a Slime and Konosuba is its concept. The series first aired on April 4, 2016, but the Director's Cut version was released in early 2020, with the show being produced by White Fox Studio. Because I watched the Director’s Cut version, I’ll be judging it from this version and not the original. Let’s jump right into this.

This is the story of Natsuki Subaru, a high school NEET who gets transported to another world while on a convenience store trip. Transported with only the things he bought from the store, Subaru finds himself in a fantastical world full of magic and creatures. Being the nerd that he is, he quickly understands that he got isekai’d, and with being isekai’d, you get tremendous power. However, Subaru can’t seem to unleash any magic. As he’s wandering around, trying to get his bearings, he runs into a group of thugs in an alleyway. Things escalate quickly and he dies. Subaru then wakes up in front of a merchant he was talking to earlier. Apparently, Subaru’s power is that whenever he dies, he is “returned to a previous save point on his journey.” It’s like when you die in a game and return to the previous safe spot. Subaru tries his luck again with the thugs. This time around, a silver haired girl aids him and he swears complete loyalty to her. After several more deaths, Subaru comes to learn that there is something sinister with not only his power, but with everything else around him. As Subaru dies a countless number of times, he’ll learn information about the people of this world and the world itself, info he’ll need to make it further and further into his journey. 

This story is absolutely phenomenal. I love the pacing as it slowly builds up this new, mysterious world for Subaru to explore. I love how with every death Subaru experiences, he slowly learns new info on what he needs to do to survive the next obstacle. He learns how to appeal to people’s emotions and negotiate with them. What Subaru does is that he’s basically picking the right dialogue options to advance to the next area. The show is basically like someone playing an RPG and choosing the correct options and it’s very interesting to see how Subaru unlocks these options and how he addresses these situations. Anyway, I love this show’s story. It’s every genre thrown into one. Romantic-Comedy/Mystery/Action/Adventure/Horror/Thriller/Political. It’s multi-genre and it’s great. One moment everyone is having a great time, then the series does a complete 180 and it’s presented perfectly.

I love all the characters. Each character is so well developed and I want to see more of these characters in the future. My favorites have to be Subaru, Rem, Felix, and Wilhelm. Subaru is so cunning, passionate, and kind-hearted. You feel for him as one tragedy after another keeps piling on him and when he finally gets out of a mess, you want to celebrate his victories. Rem is so sweet and kind. You just can’t hate her. She has this other side of her that just makes her a complete badass. Felix is a trap that’s introduced halfway through the season. I’m not really a fan of his design, but I love his personality and ability to be this pillar of support, both emotionally and physically, seeing as he’s a top-class healer. Wilhelm is a very underrated character in the series and I wish it would focus on him just a little bit more. Wilhelm is introduced alongside Felix. He helps “train” Subaru while he is seeking medical treatment from Felix. With the whole White Whale hunt in the last couple of episodes, we get massive development for him. I won’t spoil it, but I love how they handled his character.

One thing I like about Re:Zero is that despite there being a lot of characters in the series, each one doesn’t feel like throw-away characters. Another thing I like about this is that there’s no harem bullshit. It works for Konosuba because it's a parody of the isekai genre, but I’m talking about Reincarnated as a Slime and Sword Art Online. Nothing against the idea of a harem if executed correctly, but I'm glad that that’s not a thing in Re:Zero. This allows the show to do what it needs to do without needless fanservice or any of that bullshit. Now that I think about it, I don’t recall any fanservice in this at all. Closest thing to that would be Emilia and Rem’s lap pillow.

From a production standpoint, this show is also phenomenal. Compared to the original version, the Director’s Cut looks ten times better. Better line art, better detail, better backgrounds, and better animation. Speaking of which, I love the art style for the series. I love how the capital looks like Renaissance Italy. I’m a huge fan of this aesthetic and a bit biased towards it. The designs for the world itself, the magic, and all the creatures we’ll see all look great too. Another thing I love about the show are the character designs. Minus Felix, everyone looks great.

If you’re going to watch Re:Zero, please watch the Director’s Cut. In this version, they also combine episodes together. So instead of twenty five 22 minute episodes, there are thirteen roughly 1 hour long episodes. I like this approach instead of the shorter episodes. Kinda reminds me of Hellsing Ultimate. Not only are the episodes longer, but they also fixed up the art direction and attention to detail. Animation is great, too. The fight scenes and high speed chase scenes were done very well, showing off the intensity and importance these encounters are. I'm not sure about sound differences, but I’m sure the Director’s Cut touched that up too.

I love the voice acting. I watched this in Japanese dub, and all the characters had perfect casting. Every voice seems to fit their respective characters very well. My favorite voices are Yuusuke Kobayashi (Subaru), Satomi Arai (Beatrice), Inori Minase (Rem), Rie Takahashi (Emilia), and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Betelgeuse).

I LOVE the music for this show. The background music perfectly fits the moods of all of the scenes. Whether they be emotional confessions of love, absolute despair filled moments, or pure action scenes, the music always delivers. With the OPs and EDs, I found myself not really enjoying the OPs. Yeah, they're decent, but they didn't make me jump out of my seat or anything. However, the EDs were a complete 180 and I thoroughly enjoyed these. Both "Styx Helix" and "Stay Alive" hit like a goddamn truck and I couldn't bring myself to skip these. Both of these songs are in my top favorite anime songs of all time.

I can keep going on and on about this anime just like with a lot of other shows, but I’ll leave that for you guys to see. I don’t want to spoil too much as I feel that would ruin the show and its insane plot twists. I will say this, I think at around episode 8 or 9 is probably my favorite episode as so much shit happens to Subaru in a single day and you just feel for him. The horror/thriller aspect of this had my mouth gaping wide open in shock. And when "Requiem of Silence" kicks in, it adds that final layer of shock.

When you guys watch this, please watch the Director’s Cut. At the very end of the last episode, there’s a scene that plays after the credits and it’s a HUGE cliffhanger. I was freaking out about it for at least 20 minutes. I won’t spoil it obviously, but damn that hit me hard. I’ll end it here. I highly recommend the show.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next life.

This is Zorgak, signing off.